MIRRORED
by Hide-and-Eek
Summary: Kids have always wished to go into their favorite stories. Be the hero, save lives, follow an epic plot and so on and so forth. But what if you were forced into these worlds, and told you had to kill or be killed? Would your wish turn into your nightmare? Contains boyxboy, strong violence, language and OCs. Also, there are more characters than listed below, just not enough space.
1. A Very Long Prologue, Part 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

GO CHECK OUT THE CO-AUTHOR WHO I COULDN'T HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT: u/2287410/Cat-Archives

THANK YOU, AND ENJOY!

"Hey, bitchbaby," Courtney said as she spotted Brian and Cat walking over to her table. "And mom." She added, waving at the two. The older girl, wearing her usual green hoodie, waved back with a smile, her sketchbook clutched tightly in her other hand.

"Don't call me that…" Brian mumbled as he dropped off his backpack under the ivory table, and looked up at his 'sister.' "Ready to get some food?"

The redhead nodded vigorously, taking her upper class man's arm and leaving Brian behind, like she usually did. The boy sighed, and trudged after the other two, catching up within a matter of seconds.

"So, I ate french fries with a fork yesterday." He said, sparking up a conversation.

Cat looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Why? It's called finger food for a reason…"

The teenager shrugged. "I dunno. It was served to me with a fork sticking out of it, so I just did as it suggested. Duh." Brian looked around, seeing if anyone else was in the line before them as they reached their destination.

As usual, the lunch line was jam-packed with kids. All three of the students sighed, wondering how long it would actually take them to get their food this time…The youngest male leaned up against a huge metal pole that stretched to the ceiling. It was most likely there for architectural purposes. "This is gonna take _forever_" He whined, trying to move around upperclassmen's heads, looking at the selection of food that they had today. Which, unfortunately, was nothing appetizing.

Cat looked at Brian. "You always stand in the same spot…" she mumbled…

"And…?" He inquired.

Time for character descriptions because every story needs that. In this group of friends was the youngest, Brian. Although the youngest by age, he was the tallest of the three, and absolutely loved being sarcastic. He wore long pants whenever he could, and tried to make his clothes look remotely nice, which was a hard thing to do at 6:20 in the morning. Anyways, he loved to eat and draw. He rivals Cat in her artwork, and tries his best whenever he can to piss her off about it, which he doesn't really get the chance to do. Whenever bored, annoyed, reading, drawing, or otherwise, he tends to curl strands of his dark, curly hair around his fingers, a habit he developed long ago. He prefers not to talk to people he doesn't know, as being antisocial is his strong suit. The second oldest was Courtney, she was the energetic otaku friend. She had short red hair and mainly wore somewhat fancy/mismatched clothes like dresses and skirts. She always talked about anime and what she was watching, or what she recommended. She also wore a pair of multicolored glasses over a ton of makeup, which she wasn't seen without. At all. Ever.

The oldest was Catherine, or Cat as everyone called her. She had long brown/blonde hair and wore ONLY her green hoodie and a pair of jeans or slacks. People rarely ever saw her without the hoodie or her black sketch book which always accompanied her. She drew in it all the time rather than her school work and she loved showing off her skills to her friends and "rival" Brian. She doesn't talk to most people, but when she gets excited about something she typically doesn't shut up about it. She almost always had headphones in, too, whether music played or not, so its hard to tell if she's actually listening to you or ignoring you.

Artwork and Anime was practically the glue that held this whole group together. There were two more amongst them but didn't seem to be around right now, Kasi: the motherly short senior friend, and Kadin: the Skater kid who doesn't take shit from anyone. They were either with someone else, or taking some test because most of the teachers were assholes…

"What're you guys gonna get? None of this stuff looks actually good today." Brian asked them.

Courtney shrugged. "I'm thinking of jumping to another line. I see some chicken and rice over there."

"I'm just getting Pizza." Cat hummed, playing with the buttons hanging off of her Headphone cord. "I really dont care, I'm not that hungry."

"Oh, okay. I'll probably give my food to Al-" He caught himself, "Garrett. If he's here today."

Cats body visibly jerked at the mention of Garret, and Courtney glanced to Brian, sympathy written on her face. The younger boy used to be in a relationship with his ex-best friend, named Alan, but due to the latter being...immature about the whole thing, Brian ended it. There are no regrets, although he'd think about him occasionally. And regret that, of course, but you get the idea.

"Alan is an ass" Courtney said simply and without hesitation. The boy chuckled, and nodded in agreement. The redhead glanced over to her other friend, and noticed that Cat had tuned them both out, her head twitching to whatever music she had playing in her ears now. Brian followed Courtney's gaze, and upon realizing that Cat was not in 'their world' at the moment, he waved a hand in front of her face, trying to catch her attention. "...Mom?"

The girl jerked backwards in surprise when she saw the sudden object waving her face. "Wha-?" She stepped back, but lost her footing in the crowded area, most likely stepping on someone's foot and fell backwards.

"Courtney, grab her!" Brian half-yelled, trying not to turn heads. Courtney did as she was told, and grabbed her, stumbling a little herself.

"You mean like this?" She said happily. The other boy sighed.

"Yeah."

Courtney's hand grabbed Cat's and she began to pull her back up, but in the midst of it Courtney's eyes widened and she yanked her hand back, promptly dropping Cat to the floor. "Hot, hot!" She yelped, shaking her hand and blowing on it. When she looked down, the skin on her palm was red from too much contact to a heated surface. It wasn't burned as much as it was irritated. Cat lay sprawled out on her back, looking at the hand Courtney had originally grabbed, her eyebrows were knit together in confusion over her green eyes.

"...Courtney, I didn't say to _drop her_." Brian drawled sarcastically, as he looked down at Cat. "You might want to get up; you don't know how much shit you're lying in there."

Courtney gave him an 'I hate you' look as Cat slowly stood up, still looking at her hand. "Well I'm sorry, I did grab her and I was gonna pull her up. but…." She trailed off before speaking again. "Her skin was too hot… I couldn't hold on, I thought I was going to burn myself…."

Brian blinked, and tilted his head a little in confusion. "What are you talking about?" He looked to Cat, then back at Courtney. "She doesn't _look_ like she's gonna catch fire or something."

Cat touched her own hand and shrugged. "It's not hot anymore… If it was at all. I didn't feel anything."

Courtney pouted and showed them her red and irritated hand. "And I'm sure _this_ just happened out of no where?" The other boy blinked, and stared at her hand.

"Well, erm, yes." He concluded. "Her body temperature wouldn't be _that_ hot, that's just crazy."

"I dont think its possible for the human body to reach a hot enough temperature to burn someone. I'd be dead." Cat concluded. Courtney huffed and turned around to get her lunch, seeing as it was her turn to order. She knew what happened, she _felt_ it! The moment her hand grabbed Cat's, she felt an intense heat and had to let go. As the lunch man was getting her food Courtney oh-so-stealthy "bumped" into Cat. Their hands brushing together, and the brunette was right, her body temperature was normal now. Like it didn't even happen. Courtney huffed again and grabbed her food before going and checking out. The other two did the same, and as Brian grabbed his carton of chocolate milk, his fingers hissed, rising with steam, and he threw his hand backwards and stared at it, shocked. He looked to Cat. "Did you just see that!?"

The girl looked back at him and blinked, she pulled a headphone out and asked. "What?"

"Look!" He pointed his fingers at her as the remains of the evaporating dew from the carton of milk sizzled off. "It's _steam_, for God's sake! My fingers aren't supposed to do that!"

Cat looked closer at his fingers, she saw the last of it leave his digits, then stood up straight. "That's weird…" Was all she said before the lunch lady impatiently told her to put her number in and pay for the food. The other boy glared at her for a second before looking back at his hand, and hesitantly grabbing the chocolate milk again. Nothing happened. He shook his head, and placed the milk on his plastic tray before moving forward.

Courtney was already at the table eating when the other two friends got out of the lunch room, they sat down across from her and she looked up at them. "What took you so long?"

"I scorched my milk." Brian said flatly before picking at his food, and remembered that he didn't even want it in the first place. He looked around, searching for Garrett's face. The older, brown-haired boy wasn't in sight, but his backpack sat on the floor next to their table, so he would obviously be back eventually. Cat had put her headphone back in and was tuning the world out again. Courtney stared at Brian in disbelief.

"You did _what?_" She asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah, I burned my milk carton with my fingers." Brian repeated. He said this as though he did it every day. He sighed, and sat back down, waiting for the other boy to return. Garrett was in the same grade as Cat, in fact, the two of them were childhood friends. He always followed her around whenever he could, even when she didn't notice him. This earned him the nickname 'Creeper' from everyone. He didn't seem to object to it. The dude was a pretty laid-back guy; he was smart and voiced his opinion, but usually stayed quiet whenever one else talked. He had short, light brown hair and blue eyes. And everyone had noticed the obvious crush he had on his childhood friend, everyone but the crush herself.

Brian rested his chin on the rough surface of the table, and stared at a few crows as they passed.

"Today feels really boring." He mumbled, staring at the sky. "We did, like, _nothing_ in any of my classes."

"Same here." Courtney said around a mouthful of food, she swallowed then continued to talk. "But it is the end of the year, so what do you expect?"

"Well, I mean, nobody actually talked or anything. It's like something big is gonna happen or something." He shrugged, and locked eyes with a cloud as it rolled on by. "But, how can something big just _happen_? It feels so...Normal."

"You're just being crazy." Courtney said opening her milk. She looked over to Cat, who had laid her head down on the table, half of her food eaten, then back to Brian. "You are right though. Today is so boring. I might take a nap too in my next class."

"Yeah, I probably need some sleep, too…" He sighed as his eyes fell to the ground. A blackbird was pecking at a crumb at the end of the eating area. A cool breeze blew by, and the bird looked up quickly, before going back to its lunch. Everyone was quiet for a while, eating or napping. A few moments into it though, a voice popped up. "Hey guys, what's up?" Courtney popped her head up and smiled widely. "Hey, Gare-bear!"

Garrett sat down next to her with a smile. "Miss me? You guys look bored."

Brian looked up at Garrett, and smiled a little. "Oh, hey. Take my food." He slided his tray over to the other boy. Garrett didn't look surprised and he took it, the boy could eat a ton. He probably already had his own lunch. Then again, the school lunch always sucked. He took it and started eating. Brian's gaze shifted back to the bird, who was forced to fly away with the rest of its food to finish for a later time, as a few crows had intruded on his eating session. The boy sighed.

"Why is this so boring!?" He shouted to the concrete.

"When is school not boring?" Garret asked, then his eyes looked to Cat, who still had her head down and had yet to touch her food again. "Is she okay?"

Brian looked to Cat, and poked her.

"I have no idea. My stomach hurts." He complained. When Cat still made no effort at replying, Brian poked her again. "...Mom?"

Courtney reached over and shoved her a little. Cat still didn't move. "Kitty..?" The redhead asked worriedly, she shoved again slightly harder this time. Cat's body fell off the seat and tumbled sideways to the ground. Brian's eyes widened, and he jumped off his seat, his mind racing. _First, Cat scorches Courtney's hand. THEN, I end up almost setting my milk on fire. And now Cat's unconscious?! What's going on here?!_ The boy bent down over Cat's limp body, and slapped her face lightly. "Cat?!"

Garret and Courtney quickly joined, kids from other tables were glancing over as well, wondering if something was wrong and if there was, if it was worth watching. Courtney touched Cat's forehead and pulled away just like in the lunchroom. "She's hot again!"

The Brunette's face was twisted, like she was having some bad dream, her face was flushed and she looked like she had a fever. Any attempts to wake her up, though, proved useless. No matter what they did, she wouldn't wake. All of a sudden, a jolt of pain flew through Brian's body, the end result manifesting in his gut. "O-ouch!" He yelped, clutching his stomach with his arms.

Today sucked.

"Brian?" Courtney reached her hand over to him worriedly. "What's wrong? Are you okay?!"

Garret remained concentrating on Cat, he wanted to touch her, wake her, but nothing was working...her skin was too hot to do anything… was she sick?

"I-I'm fine." The other boy mumbled, and brushed her hand away with his right arm, the end result being another burn to Courtney's hand. She reeled her arm away in pain.

"Hey!" She yelled in protest. Brian swallowed a small lump in his throat, and looked at his arm. It looked fine...Wait, no it didn't. His face, his entire body began to feel hot. His vision began to grow blurry as his body tried to resist the pain. He looked down at his hands at the intervals when his eyesight would focus. They were beginning to _glow _with heat. He looked up at Courtney, fear etched into his face.

Courtney was staring at him in horror. She could see his face glow, the veins, bones, and muscle beginning to become visible through the lit-up skin. "Brian… What-"

"Cat!" Garrett's voice cried out and many students yelled suddenly, the two teens heads turned, Brian's more slowly, to see that Cat's jacket had set fire. Along with her pants. Garret was ripping his own jacket off and starting to beat at the flames with it, but they wouldn't go out. Instead they spread even more, to her feet, her hands, her face. Her body was turning to ash before their very eyes. Brian slowly looked back down at his hands again. His eyes ached, and his body had indeed caught fire as well. He sighed weakly, smoke billowing out of his mouth like a dragon, before he fell to the earth beside his friend, semi-unconscious. A few crows flew away in the distance, squawking to each other in irritation.

Voices echoed and blurred together, people shouting for 911 or a teacher. Cat and Brian's names were being screamed, it was all abruptly cut off when everything just went black.

"Cat."

"Cat…?"

"Cat!" Brian screamed, seeing as the girl had begun to gain her consciousness. "Cat, we're not dead!" The boy exclaimed in semi-happiness.

The brunette's body jerked and her eyes flew open. "Hot!" she said loudly then quickly shut her mouth in surprise. Was her voice… lighter? Higher pitched? Her eyes looked around and spotted a small, dark brown-haired boy tied up across from her. Seeing him tied up, she tried moving her hands, which were also tied up, along with her feet.

"...What?" He gave her a confused look. Hot? Was that supposed to mean something? He looked around quickly, then back to her. "Do you recognize this place at all? I can't see very well…"

Cat looked back to the boy. She stared at him silently for a while, he looked uncomfortable when she finally spoke. "Who are you?"

The other's expression blanked. He was _not _expecting that question. "...Who _am_ I? I'm Brian! Come on, from school! Don't say that you don't remember me! We caught fire, remember!?"

"BRIAN?!" Cat's jaw dropped. "THAT'S YOU!? You're so…so...small...and young… what the hell happened…"

The other boy blinked, and looked down. She was right. His age must've reversed; he didn't remember his legs being so hairless. He looked back up at Cat. "What the hell are we supposed to do!?" He blinked. His voice had risen to its annoying tone from when he was younger. Something was wrong here.

Cat was busy looking over her own body, so small and short. Her now short hair was fully blonde, like it used to be when she was little. "I dunno… but I hope it's a dream…"

The other boy sighed, and tried to move his arms. No use. Whoever tied them up knew what they were doing.

Suddenly, the door on the other side of the "room" opened, letting light in to show the two children that they were in a warehouse, laying against boxes of who-knows-what. A man walked in and after their eyes adjusted to the sudden light both of them could see he wore and old fashion suit, he had scruffy brown hair and a goatee that made his smirk look sinister. He walked in, messing with his white gloves and looked down at the two children.

"Well, two brats in one haul, today's special." he said with a deep husky voice, maybe he smoked? Brian gritted his teeth as the man spoke, his voice sent chills down his back.

"What the hell do you want with us!?" He snarled to the newcomer.

The man instantly walked over in a few strides of his long legs, and kicked Brian across the face. Cat cried out in shock. "Brian!"

"Speak with respect or don't speak at all." the man said. There was no malice in his voice, no anger. Mostly giddiness. Like he was excited for this. The boy slowly brought his head back to face the other man, blood dripping from his nose and down his chin. He stared up at him in anger, but did as he was told and shut up.

"Good boy." the man said, then pat Brian on the head like he was some kind of pet. He stood up straight and looked from him to Cat, the smirk still there. "You two might be promising." He reached behind Brian and grabbed him by the back of his shirt collar, both he and Cat now wore plain white clothes, long pants, and a normal shirt. Once the man threw Brian over his shoulder, he walked the short distance across the room to Cat and grabbed her under his arm. "Let's go, Kiddies~"

"Nngh-" Brian grunted against the man's shoulder, which was digging into his stomach. He refused to speak to this man, and instead sat perfectly still. He tightened whatever abdominal muscles he had, so that this wasn't as painful as it already was.

"Uh..." Cat started to speak up as he carried them outside. The warehouse was in the middle of a forest and looked abandoned in all honesty. The man was carrying them towards a truck where a few other men waited. These people were burly though. The heavy lifters. "What, exactly, are you going to do with us..? Sir?"

She made sure to add the sir and ask as politely as she could manage. She didn't want the man to "accidentally" drop her on her head.

"We're going to take you, and train you. Then use you. That's all. No mercy and no niceties."

"What!?" Brian yelled over the man's shoulder. "We have _lives_, you know! We can't just run off like we never had a life before now!" His eyes shifted to the back of the male who was holding them captive. He bounced Brian slightly on his shoulder, driving it into his stomach.

"Well, now you belong to Mirror, any life you had before is gone now."

"Like hell it is!" The boy's eyes lit with rage, and he proceeded to kick the man in the chest. Although it wouldn't do much with the amount of muscle in his legs, he knew it would at least stun him temporarily. Maybe. The man bounced him again, this time harder, then threw both of them into the back of the truck. Brian gasped for breath as his body was tossed around, winded. He looked to Cat, concerned, as they were thrown into the back of the vehicle.

"What are we going to do?!" He looked to her.

"Not much we can do…" Her voice had gotten quieter. She was obviously upset about this, but too timid and scared to do anything about it. She sat up and laid against the truck as it started up and moved. The back was closed by a big man before he jumped onto the side of it. Brian sighed as he regained the function of his lungs, and closed his eyes, leaning against the back of the truck, and thinking. The truck bounced uncomfortably up and down, Cat looked up at Brian. "Hey…. what do you think our friends are thinking right now…?"

"Probably to teach them that magic trick as soon as we got back." He looked to Cat, and smiled at her in the semi-darkness.

Cat chuckled. "Yeah, Courtney's going to be pissed. We probably scared the shit out of her and Garrett."

The other boy nodded. "Mm-hm. Most likely, they're probably trying to explain this whole thing to the police or something."

"That's a funny mental image." Cat chuckled to herself then closed her eyes. "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Brian nodded in agreement. "Yep. Not anymore…" He mumbled to himself.

Cat looked back at him. "Where do you think we are?" the truck hit a pothole in the dirt road and they bounced around violently."

"I don't know-!" He curled up into a ball as the truck jumped around, wincing. Once they successfully passed through the small hole in the road, he looked around. Light was pouring in through small holes in the white fabric. "It looks like a forest. It also looks untouched…" He squinted, trying to see through the white fabric. The sun was setting, and their sources of light were beginning to dwindle. The rest of the ride went on in silence. The kids were both too tired and stressed to say anything, or just wanted the time to think. Soon, it was pitch black outside, and the truck had come to a complete stop.

"Haul them out of there." someone said and the doors were pulled open. Brian woke up as the truck slowed to a stop; he didn't remember when he fell asleep. Two people reached their arms in and pulled both children out to the ground, their ropes were cut and they were placed in front of the same man as before. Behind him was a big house, around it was lots of open land with trees here and there. "Welcome home, kids. "They looked around as the waves of grass glinted silver against the moonlight.

The man walked closer to them. "Now, for the explanation. We are a group called Mirror. We are from Earth. We're a secret organization created by the government to find new weapons to use whenever America decides to go to war again. As of recently, we have discovered we can….jump universes. You see, everything is an alternate universe. Every idea, every story, movie, comic book, and thought. This is all because of one of the many laws of the universe: An idea is a reality. A perfect example is this," He bent down, and yanked a few blades of grass out of the ground. "You see this grass? In an alternate universe, I ripped out one less blade of grass. In another, I didn't rip out any. Do you see what I'm getting at here? Every single option has an alternate, where the anti happens. That's how a universe is created." The two kids blinked in understanding, but still confusion. How were they involved in something as complex as this? The man held up a hand. "I'm not done. You see, when we found out we could jump between these universes, picking them specifically instead of randomly...we looked towards the authors of the world… they make universes real every day. The things they write about, the fiction, it's all real somewhere. Imagine having a power from….let's say, Harry Potter? What if you could use magic? Life would be more exciting, huh? There are many stories out there with lots of power. And it's Mirror's job to go and get that power. We're spread out, of course, I'm just a branch assigned to this particular universe."

Cat spoke up. "You mean...we're not "on Earth" anymore? We're somewhere else?"

"You got that right." Brian and Cat had been right. They really weren't home anymore…But on a much deeper level than either of them anticipated. Brian looked to Cat quickly, and she returned the stare.

"So, then...Where _are_ we?" Brian asked, looking back up to the stranger. He gave them his now typical smirk.

"You've heard of Attack on Titan, right?"


	2. A Very Long Prologue, Part 2

Brian's mouth hung open in shock, and he chuckled slightly, speechless. Cat was the same way, too unbelieving to speak. The man took it as a sign to keep talking.

"Our group was drawn here for the "Titan shifting" ability. Imagine an army of controlled Titans working for America. We'd be unstoppable. Anyways, we're not sure how it works. This is the third time we've gotten people to test on. You two are officially Titan Shifters. It wasn't easy to give you that ability, so don't go wasting it on stupid stuff and don't ask what happened to the others we tested it on. It's not pretty, so you better pray you're special. What's going to happen now, is that we are going to train you to use your Titan abilities. You are to use them ONLY for Mirror's purposes. You will do what we say and when we say it."

"Or what?" Cat couldn't help but ask, she had to, there was always an 'or what' in these kinds of situation.

The man shrugged nonchalantly. "Or we kill your friends and families."

Brian stared up at the man, his face white against the moon. "Erm, are you planning on telling us your name?"

"Francis. Francis Douglas." the man said with pride.

"Oh, so you're French or something." Brian replied dully. The man looked down at him, unamused. "Be quiet and get up." He sighed, and stood, wiping the dried blood off of his nose and lip. "What is it?"

"It's late, so you two need to rest to get up early tomorrow and start your training." With that, Francis turned around and strolled into the house, leaving the "body guard" to stop them from running if they tried. Cat looked to Brian sadly and he looked back, having truly nothing else to do. The kids got up and followed Francis inside.

**11 years later.**

"UUUAAAAAHHH!" Cat screamed as she threw Brian over her shoulder for the second time that day. He landed on his back painfully, the air flying from his lungs. He was left to curl up and look like a fish out of water as Cat cheered jumping up and down, sweat falling from her body.

"Finally! I got you again! That's what you get!" She said, pointing to him dramatically with her bandaged hands. She had been practicing punches on a tree earlier, and Francis decided to up the challenge by removing the protective padding on the tree. She had to punch it till the bark was gone or she could see the bones of her hands. You could guess which happened. Brian slowly rose to his feet, and dusted off his hands on his shorts.

"I win that round." Cat hummed. "I didn't throw you too hard, did I?"

Her opponent shook his head, and sighed. "Nope. I'll be fine, you've done worse." He stood up, bent his knees, and raised his fists to his head, taking his posture right out of his memory, specifically remembering when Francis taught him it. The thoughts rolled by every time he did. He didn't know why, but he didn't have the time to ponder it either. "Alright, go again."

Cat nodded and ran at him, keeping low so she could dodge any punch he threw and get under his arms. The boy smiled, feeling a warm breeze dive by, shuffling the grass around them. He moved to Cat a little, but instead of throwing a punch, he swung his right leg in a semicircle around his body, aiming for his opponent's footing. Cat's eyes widened the moment she saw his foot move, he wasn't going to punch, he was going to kick or trip her. Unable to stop her already moving body, she transferred the momentum and jumped, throwing her body forward, her hands outstretched to grab his shoulders. The boy's fist's rose to his face again, and he ducked, and proceeded to roll under her, feeling the cool grass prick against his bare back. Upon successfully reaching his feet, he stood up, and faced Cat, grinning.

"Gotcha!" He yelled, and jumped at her.

Cat couldn't exactly stop herself in midair when he moved out of the way. All she could do was follow it with a dive-roll and quickly turn to face him, but by the time she did he was already jumping at her. She blindly threw her leg out with a yell of fear and surprise.

Brian's eyes widened, and winced a little as the leg smashed into his side. But, instead of falling away, he dug his feet into the ground, and grabbed her leg with his hands.

"Humph." He smirked at her, and threw her leg in the opposite direction from whence it came, causing her to lose balance. "Nice counter. You're really getting good at this."

The brunette stumbled and regained her footing. "Thanks..? I just kinda did that on a whim… I'm not good at fighting… I'm pretty cowardly…"

The teen stood up, and lowered his arms at his sides. "You're not cowardly enough to back away.." he replied. "That alone takes a lot of strength."

Cat shrugged. "Yeah. I guess. That sounded so cheezy, Brian." She was suddenly spinning around, her right foot coming up off the ground to roundhouse kick him in the cheek.

The other watched her body with a sort of intensity in his eyes. _Duck_. He thought to himself, and did as such, remembering that exact move being displayed to him when he was younger. "Well, we are in an anime, after all." He smiled up at her, and returned to his previous position.

Only problem is Cat was still spinning as he stood up, so he didn't have time to duck again as her foot came around again.

"!" He could only watch as her other leg flew into his face, sending him flying into the ground. "Dammit, should've seen that one coming-" He mumbled as he wiped the blood from his mouth and nose, and sat up on all fours. Cat bent down and offered him a hand, she had a truly apologetic look on her face. "Sorry…" she whispered then a voice came from the outside training areas entrance.

"That was an excellent kick, Catherine!" Francis was clapping his hands as he came over.

"It's fine…" Brian mumbled as he grabbed onto her hand, and stood up. He looked up at Francis. "Has anyone ever told you that you _suck_ at being supportive?"

"I'm supporting Cat, aren't I? Saying she did a good job?" he asked, shrugging.

"Well, yeah, but I was the one that got my jaw knocked out." He said blankly, stretching.

"You want me to say, 'Oh, good job, Brian! You got knocked on your ass and roundhouse kicked by a girl, keep up the good work!' You want me to say that? 'Cause I can."

The teen jabbed a finger at him. "Oh, so you think getting beaten up by a girl is some sort of insult now? Do you want her foot in _your_ mouth, instead? Because I can _easily_ make that happen." He growled back.

Cat leaned back and looked at Brian. "And how the hell are YOU gonna put MY foot in HIS mouth? Pick me up and throw me?"

His eyes focused onto Cat. "If you're as mad at this guy for throwing us in here as I am, then I don't think you'd hesitate in doing so." He mumbled to her before storming past them both, and into the cabin.

"Brian…" Cat called after him, but he ignored her and kept going. She cast a glare to Francis who took it and shrugged like 'he's gotten worse'. The brunette walked past him and into their home after her friend.

The slender male was in his room, staring out his window, arms folded. He looked down at the expanse of forest that surrounded their home, beads of sweat dripping down his face. He glanced behind him as he heard footsteps coming closer, and he looked back to the window. His breath had begun to fog up the glass. There was a knock on the door, then the sound of it slowly opening. "Brian?" A female voice called.

He sighed. "Yeah?" He turned towards Cat, and leaned against the sill. She stepped into the room and closed the door with a small click.

"Are you okay?"

"Of course not. Francis is an asshole. Did you hear what he said to me?" His voice began to rise in anger. "Who does this guy think he is?! He's raising people to turn into fighters, and then doesn't expect them to maybe go against him every once in a while?"

Cat sighed and sat down on his bed. "He knows we hate him, he knows we want to go against him. He knew from the beginning that we would. Why else did he threaten our friends and family, Brian? So we wouldn't do anything drastic…"

"Drastic? He's basically asking us to hurt him! I haven't seen my family or friends for 11 years, Cat! And, although they still mean a lot to me, I just...I don't know if I should let go or not. I mean, will we ever see them again? Ever? None of this is right! At all!"

Cat stared at him from his bed, she sat silently for a while before quietly asking, "What would you do, then?"

By then, Brian had faced the window again. He turned back to Cat when she spoke. "What?"

"If you were going to do something...with your hate and your rage and all of this...emotion building up… what would you do with it all?"

"I would teach Francis a lesson. I would teach him, no, I would teach all of _Mirror_ that they just can't go around treating people like animals! That's just not how this works! We have _emotions_, we have _thoughts_, _feelings_, _pain_. They can't just shove that all aside because they want to!" His hands balled into fists, his temper reaching its boiling point. The words were just spilling out of his mouth now, he had to find a way to let all of this out somehow.

"You'd make them pay?" Cat asked, her face seemed to hold an expression of indifference, like she wasn't going through the exact same crap he was and was just a bystander, watching it happen. "Bring them down? Attack them without mercy?"

"Er, no…." His voice lowered a little. "I would just find a way to show them that we hurt. It doesn't have to be through their pain, it just...It doesn't have to be this way. There are other ways that make people do what you want without actually hurting them. They have to understand that." He finished, folding his arms.

"What do you want them to do instead? Would you do this kind of thing willingly, Brian?" she asked him.

"No way. But, I know there are people out somewhere in the world that would. Which reminds me. Are we really in the world of Attack on Titan? Because I haven't seen a single Titan in 11 years."

"You want to find out?" She waved her hand and gestured to the window, aka outside.

"Yeah, I do. That would be great."

"Then go for it. Go out and find a titan without any weapons, or knowledge on how to control your own Titan." She sat back on her arms and gave him a look that said 'I'm waiting'.

The boy grunted. "So, we haven't done anything productive in this training camp, have we? Neither of us can really control our Titans, well, at least remotely well." He kept his arms folded, and looked at the wall.

"You want to try?" Cat asked. "Using your Titan I mean."

Brian's eyes lit up a little. "W-wait, do you think that if we do, we won't get...You know, yelled at?"

The brunette smiled. "It's productive training isn't it?"

The boy nodded, smiling a little himself. "Yeah, guess it is!" He pushed himself off the windowsill, and dashed out of his room, flinging the door open. Cat laughed and quickly got up to chase after him, down the hall and out the back door to the field they call a training area. "How do we start?"

"Uhm...In the show, they have to release blood. I think…" He scratched behind his head.

"Don't forget the whole, we gotta have a goal thing going on." Cat suddenly bounced with giddiness."This will be our first time seeing our Titans! I'm so excited! I wonder what we'll look like!"

Brian nodded. "Y-yeah. So, er, do we have a list of steps, or are we just gonna wing it? Because I still don't understand how we're gonna transform…"

Cat shrugged. "Wing it. What else are we gonna do?" she brought her hand up to her face and looked at it. "But...I don't think I can bite myself hard enough to bleed…"

"Uh, yeah…Maybe we hit each other?" He asked weakly.

"Can you hit a girl?" Cat asked in a playful mock tone. Brian's face darkened a little.

"I've done it before, haven't I?" He raised his fists. "And, wait, when we leave our Titan forms, we'll have our clothes, right?"

Cat nodded. "happens to eren and the others so i we should still be fully clothed. well be exhausted though…"

He nodded. "That's okay. It's…" He looked up at the sun. "It's around lunchtime, anyways. So, uh, me first?"

Cat waved for him to go ahead. "Need me to stab you?"

The boy shook his head. "No, I'm good." And with that, he bent his knees at a 145 degree angle, and sprung at Cat. He swung his fist into her face, throwing his arm at a diagonal angle. The girl bent backwards, her back arching till her hands touched the ground, she kept the flow going and swung her foot up as hard as she could, aiming for Brian's face. If she could hit him right he'd bite his tongue or break his nose. That would be a suitable enough for a Titan transformation. However, her foot only smack into his lower jaw, sending his head upwards. He lowered his skull. "Harder!" He said.

"Harder…?" Cats eyes widened. She just kicked him as hard as she could, and he wants her to hit him harder?

His eyesight began to blur a little as his body recovered from the hit. "It didn't break skin. Harder." He repeated. The girl sucked in a breath and bit her lip as she ran at him. She dug her foot hard into the ground and pivoted, doing the same round house kick she had hit him with earlier today.

"Duck." Was the initial thought that ran through Brian's head, but this time, he didn't follow through, and instead flew backwards into the dirt, the blood running from his nose and mouth again. His body shook as he rose, and smiled. "I...I think you did it…" His gut wrenched and formed a small ball as he slowly stood up, his body shaking.

Cat took a few steps back to watch. "How you feeling?"

"Awful…" He mumbled, before falling to his knees. A hot wind began to encircle the boy, as muscle, skin, and bone began to morph and form around him. Cat's mouth fell open as she watched him grow in size and cover up the sun, she just stared up at him from a tiny place on the ground. She was so small now compared to him. "Oh, wow…"

The Titan was around 15 meters in height, and had skin-covered bone covering it's chest, stomach, and kneecaps. He had two more masses of bone that hung down at his cheeks like the protective pieces on a Spartan helmet, and his hair had grown to be more straight. He had spiked layers of what seemed to be hardened bone or some other material of equal strength that started at his shoulders, and ended at the middle of his back. His hands were covered in that material as well, and everything from his shoulders to his wrists was just exposed muscle. He looked up, and roared at the sky. A few birds flew away, cawing back and forth.

Cat jumped up and down with excitement and glee. "Yeah! Brian you did i,t you're a Titan! You're a freaking Titan this is amazing! Hey can you understand me!?" She had to shout to make sure he could hear her from so far up.

The Titan knelt down so that he could hear her better, and nodded, confirming that he could understand her. He smiled a little. Er, he tried to. It was kind of hard, being as he had a bigger head. The smaller girl started having a fit of giggles over his attempt to smile, his face had contorted to something that was half-smile, half-scowl and it had been funny. "What now?" He shrugged, and looked up as shouting was heard from the cabin. Cat looked over to see Francis running at them with a few of his bodyguard friends.

Cat rolled her eyes. "Here we go…" Brian grunted, and stood to his full height, towering over the house, and just about everything for a ten-mile radius. He stared down at Francis and the others, resisting the urge to kick him through the house. Or squash him. Whichever one created the most pleasure in this case.

"You're a Titan!" francis shouted up at him with glee. "You managed to become a Titan! Congratulations Brian!" Brian couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

The frenchman turned his head towards Cat. "Have you tried yet?" he was so excited it was creepy. The girl leaned away from him.

"Not...yet...we were gonna do it one at a time…"

The Titan growled viciously at Francis, and took a step in his direction. Although he wanted to, he couldn't talk. It seemed as though he wasn't able to in this state.

Francis held up his hands to the Titan. "Calm down Brian. I was only asking." he looked back to Cat. "Well, now that Brian can do it, you should too. You need to start getting control of your Titan after all."

The girl's frown deepened. "I told you...We're doing it one at a time...We know how turning into a Titan exhausts the body, so I won't do anything until Brian is done and I know he's okay."

How do I...Get out? Brian thought to himself. His human body was surrounded by the warm, pulsing flesh of his Titan's shell. It felt like being in a bed, to say the least. His Titan looked around, examining the horizon from his height. They truly were surrounded by forest, there was nothing around them for miles. So where were the Titans?

"Need us to cut you out?" Francis yelled up to him. The two men behind him both had 3DMG and were ready to do so.

Brian nodded, and knelt down. Francis was trying not to be an ass to him for once. Was he proud of him or something? No, this was Francis. He wouldn't be proud of him if he won a Nobel Prize. Although he practically raised him for 11 miserable yet educational years of his life, but hey, whatever. The man waved a hand and his henchmen shot wires up and they lodged into the back of Brian's neck, they sped up and landed on his shoulders. With great care, they slowly slid their swords into the nap of his neck and began cutting a square out, where Brian would be. The boy slid out of the back of the Titan, and proceeded to fall out of it. However, the dull spikes on the back of the Titan's neck acted as a net, as the boy fell in. "OUCH!" He shouted, and climbed to his Titan's shoulders. "Okay, um, how am I getting down?" He looked at the ground precariously. One of the bodyguards held a hand out, so he could drop him off down below. The teen hesitantly looked up at the bodyguard's face before grabbing his hand.

The man held Brian to his chest then jumped down, he traveled down the Titans body so as not to directly slam into the ground and break something. Once landed he let the boy go. Cat hurried over to him.

"You okay now?'

Brian nodded as a few drops of sweat fell from his chin. "Y-yeah." He looked over to Francis. "There's no Titans here. At all. What the hell is going on?"

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Of course there isn't. We're inside the walls. Didn't I tell you that already…?" he looked apologetic.

"What!? Really?!" He didn't know whether to be mad at Francis, or happy that he was already where he wanted to be, or mad at himself for not figuring it out already. "Then shouldn't we be joining the military by now?!"

"Not yet. In a few weeks they will be doing their recruitment for the 114th. i want to make sure you are both absolutely ready for it. Now, Cat…" He cast his gaze to her expectantly, she swallowed looking nervous. Brian smiled for what he thought was the first time at Francis, and then looked to Cat.

"Yeah, you're up."

The girl groaned. "That means I need to get kicked in the face…" her shoulders slumped and then she stood in front of her friend. "Let's get it over with…"

"Hey, Francis, if you still want me to prove my worth to you, then I guess now's my chance, so pay attention to me, for once.…Sorry about this, Cat." He mumbled, before rushing forward, and jumping, bringing his right leg down diagonally, striking Cat across the face. He landed in the grass, which felt cool in between his toes, and he looked up at her.

Cat was hunched over and holding her cheek, she had a growing welt but not skin was broken. "that huuurrrrttt…." she whined, her mouth now swollen, her words sounded slurred.

"Better idea." He curled his into fists, and executed a punch across Cat's nose. "That should do the trick." Brian's dark eyes flashed with determination.

Cats face went flying when his fist made contact, there was an audible SNAP and almost instantaneously, unlike Brian's experience, steam flew from Cat's body and the sound the muscle growing and bones forming quickly followed. When the steam cleared, a 13 meter Female titan was crouching on the ground holding her nose and looking in pain.

Brian's eyes widened as he backed up to the other men. "Wow...Cat, you look amazing!" he shouted, then looked up and down her body, taking note in the air sacs that accompanied her pale skin.

Cat moved her hands away from her face when she realized the pain had stopped. She looked at her hands then her arms, then her whole body, standing up straight. Like most Titans, she was covered in head to toe in skin. Except for a (not so) few exceptions where muscle did show, mainly in four strips running vertically down her throat, five circular cutouts along her collarbone and in four separate areas in the corners of her stomach, two below her ribs and two above her hips. More muscle was exposed on her upper arms and thighs, and more cuts were on her wrists and ankles, like a decoration of sorts.

She blinked and looked down at Brian then smiled, she actually could. That's not the only thing she could do. "You're all so small."

"HOLY SHIT YOU CAN TALK-" The teenager exclaimed, jumping up and down. "Do you know what all of those holes in your skin are for?"

Cat touched the spots on her throat and chest where the muscle was exposed. "I don't… maybe they don't do anything at all?"

Brian shrugged. "I dunno. We'll find out later, I guess. Do you know how to get out?"

Cat looked like she was concentrating. "I can move my arm a little inside…it's so weird, talking like this. I feel so..loud…"

"It's probably because of your height." Brian finished. "I can't wait to use these forms in battle! It's gonna be so fun!"

"If you say so. You were bigger than me." She pouted then knelt down. "How do I get out?"

The other boy pointed to the men with the 3DMG, and then looked up at Francis. He was unusually quiet. Not being one to start a conversation with him, he looked back to Cat. "The guys with the Maneuver Gear will get you out." He confirmed. The Titan nodded as the two men approached and climbed up to the back of Cat's neck. She held still as they started to cut her out, she suddenly jerked though when she felt her arm get sliced.

"OW!" She gasped in pain and suddenly her throat expanded like some kind of frog. Brian's eyes widened. "Be careful up there!" He yelled to them. He opened his mouth to say something else, but he stopped, and looked at Cat's throat. "...Cat, do you know what you just did?"

She opened her mouth to reply when a high pitched "NO" came from her throat. It was like nails on a chalk board, even if it was brief. Her throat shrunk slightly.

"Ah, Christ, Cat!" He covered his ears with his hands, and gritted his teeth. "That hurts!"

Cat sat up, her hands flew to her mouth and she promptly knocked over one of the men on her back. She didn't dare saying even though she wanted to apologize. Brian facepalmed, confused as to what was going on exactly.

"Are any of you okay?" He shouted to the Titan/bodyguards. Cat remained silent as she looked over her shoulder. The fallen man was climbing his way back.

"We're okay!" He shouted. He sounded louder than normal.

"Alright!" Brian shouted back, and he looked to Francis again. He wasn't necessarily worried about him, just confused as to why he wasn't speaking. He shoved his guardian's shoulder lightly. "...Hello?"

Francis shook his head. "What? Oh." he grinned again and clapped Brian on the shoulder. "Great job today you two! Congratulations!"

"Er...Are you okay?" Brian asked, ignoring the complement. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he studied the frenchman's face. "You've been staring at the same spot in the sky for like, the last 3 minutes."

"I've just been thinking is all. Nothing to worry about. You guys deserve a reward."

Brian blinked in shock. There really was something wrong with this man. "A r-reward? Er, what did you have in mind?"

"What do you two want?" he asked. He looked up to Cat, who was getting pulled out of her Titan's back.

"Um...I, well, uh…." He stared at the ground, not expecting any of this to happen. The first thing he thought was 'I want to get out of here. That's what I've wanted for as long as I can remember.' But, now, he wasn't exactly sure. If you can swim through the Pacific ocean of asshole that made up 70% of Francis's being, then you'll find that he was, at times, tolerable.

"I want…Hmm…" He looked up at Francis again. "When are we leaving? A few days?"

"To the Recruits?" he asked putting his hands behind his back.

"Yessir." The boy nodded.

"We have about two weeks." The man said nodding his head. "Why?"

"I was just curious." The teenager replied. He looked up as Cat landed safely on the ground, along with the two bodyguards that followed.

"Hey, what do you want for your reward?" Brian asked her as she landed, arms folded.

She came over, looking tired. "We get a reward? Huh, that's new." she stretched and yawned, her back cracking several times.

Her comrade smirked. "Yeah, I know right? Francis must be drunk or something…" He glanced to him jokingly. "So, what do you want to do?" He looked back to Cat.

"Go into town!" Cat said, bouncing up and down now. "We've never been for the whole time! If we're really in the walls I want to see the city!" A smile dawned on the other teen's face, and he looked up at their mentor. "Can we? Please?!"

Francis tilted his head in thought, "Sure, why not. I'll even let you go by yourselves. No babysitter."

Cat grabbed Brian's arm in excitement and shook his sleeve violently. "Did you hear that!?"

Brian grinning, and grabbed her arm with his other arm. "Yes! This is amazing! Thank you, Francis!" He grinned up at him, excitement filling his body. "When do we get to go?"

"When do you want to?" Francis asked smiling at them. Brian looked at Cat.

"I kind of want to go as soon as possible…" He thought out loud, "And everyone will be in bed by the time we get there...So...Tomorrow morning?"

Francis nodded. "Wake up early if you want. A car will be waiting out front for you in the morning." he then turned around and walked back to the house.

Cat was bouncing off the walls excitedly. "This is great! We get to go into the city!"

"And cars!? I can't remember the last time I was actually _in_ one of those-!" Brian was grinning from ear to ear.

"This is great!" The female tackle-hugged Brian, then ran inside, giddy to the core.

"H-Hey, wait up!" Brian pulled himself off the ground, and ran inside after her, shutting the door behind him. Night had begun to fall, and the stars were beginning to show as the sky had begun its daily transformation into darkness.


	3. Chapter 1: Brian VS Eren

**5 years later, the Forest of Giant Trees.**

**Catherine and Brian have graduated from the Military, and have chosen the path of the Survey Corps. They are now good friends with the rest of the 104th Trainees Squad, and have chased Annie's Titan into the forest. Cat has chosen to interfere with the brawl between Annie and Eren, which lead to Annie's first downfall. However, Mikasa and Levi have been curious as to the occurrence of two new Titans. Cat's, which has the ability to speak, and Brian's Armored Titan, who seems to be trying to defend her. However, Eren refuses to let this new Titan bother coming close to her.**

Eren made a low growling sound at Brian, and bent his knees a little. His eyes flashed with anger, and he waited for Brian's move.

The other Titan took a step back, confused as to why Eren was doing this. Didn't he know what was going on? Obviously not. He sighed, and thought: "I really don't want to do this..." before taking a step forward, and punting Eren's jaw.

Cat watched as Eren's head jerked to the side, his jaw flying off. "Eren!" she shouted then quickly covered her mouth.

Levi's head shot towards her. "The Titan knows Eren's name," he thought. "She has to be a Shifter... someone close to him..." he looked up at Brian, the gears in his head turning. As miscellaneous parts of Eren's jaw splattered against the trees behind them, Brian glanced at Levi, feeling his eyes burning into the giant. Eren threw his head forward, and, taking advantage of his attacker's loss of attention, grabbed Brian's leg with both of his arms, and swung it upwards, making the Titan flip onto his back.

"No!" Cat screamed, leaning up slightly, moving slowly and jerkily. "Stop! You're only making it worse!" she reached a hand out towards Eren but Mikasa flew by, cutting the hand off.

"Stop moving, Screaming Titan. Stay down." she landed in a tree nearby, flicking blood from her blades and giving a cold stare at Cat. She really didn't like this Titan. Instead, Cat drew her hand back and looked at Brian, and, hoping to get his attention, she gestured to her ears. His eyes redirected to Cat for a split second, and he nodded, before looking back up at Eren, whom he was holding back with both hands, and threw his bone-covered skull into the other's, leaving him stunned. The other Titan threw his head to the heavens in a pained yell, giving Brian enough time to scramble out from his grasp. He got to his feet, and jumped backwards, and used that momentum to leap forward, slugging the other in the face one more time, before running away from Cat.

Cat opened her mouth in a large intake of breath, the four muscles on her throat expanding once more.

"Not again! Mikasa!" Levi screamed. The girl shot her rope out, lodging it into Cat's jaw. She zipped closer and aimed right at the closest air-filled sack. As soon as her blades collided, though, the entire thing exploded in a powerful shockwave, throwing Mikasa back. Cat's eyes widened suddenly and she screamed in pain, the sound high pitched and horrid when its intention was for it to be a long boom.

Brian's eyes widened again, as he saw that entire event from around half a kilometer away. This was _not_ going as planned, at all. He held his hands over his ears, waiting for the cry to finish. Her air sac would regenerate, right?

Meanwhile, the other titan threw his face onto the ground, and wrapped himself into a ball, feeling in a world of hurt. Eren's body began to shake violently again; all he wanted to do was protect the gentle titan that yelled a lot. He didn't want her to hurt him. And, where had that other one gone, the one with the spikes? Did he know this was coming?

Cat stopped a few seconds later and brought her hands up to the bleeding organ on her throat. She panted hard and looked back at everyone, who lay down injured and in pain. She started clawing at the back of her neck, trying to get herself out as soon as possible.

As soon as the cry had ended, Brian rushed back to Cat, lunging over Eren's body in the process. He didn't want to hurt his comrade any more than he already had to. Upon reaching Cat, throwing dust and dirt of every variety in the process, he reached around behind her, and gently pulled out the human in her neck, holding her with cupped hands, his fingers protecting her like steel bars.

As Eren's body began to recuperate from the scream, he slowly looked up at the other titan. Being virtually the same size and build, he actually looked like a formidable opponent. He'd have to leave that for another time, though. However, there was something else that he noticed. This Titan didn't go back to beating him up as soon as he got the chance. He instead went straight to...The other female titan. They must know each other. That means...That means that he didn't have to hit him...He was preventing the other from getting to his goal. Which was...?

As soon as Cat was ripped from her Titan's body, it instantly collapsed and began to disintegrate, turning to nothing more than dust and bones. "Brian..." she said in a weak and tired voice, "Thank you...we need to leave now...While everyone is stunned, hurry..."

Hearing her soft voice, Brian nodded, and dashed out of there as fast as his huge legs could carry him, careful not to take down every tree in sight this time.

Even though every muscle ached, Eren slowly tried to rise and follow the other two, groaning softly. After trying to take a step, his body failed him, and he collapsed with a large thud, and Eren swore he could feel his head going on the verge of exploding right then and there.


	4. Chapter 2: The Way Home

Cat felt like she was going to pass out. "Go as far as the edge of the forest...then change back...we'll return to the Scouting Legion together. Say you found me about to be eaten by a Titan, okay...?"

The giant nodded, and made his way to the near edge of the forest within the span of the next few minutes. Brian placed Cat on the earth as softly as possible, and slowly fell to the ground in a heap, panting. The 16-meter humanoid bent down, falling onto one knee, and, slowly, Brian emerged from the neck of his titan. He stumbled off the back, and down the now vacant body. "C-cat? Are you alright?!" He stumbled around the large being that he occupied a minute ago, and looked down, spotting the small pool of blood around her.

"I'll be okay. If anyone asked, a titan did it." she started lifting up the back of her shirt. "Does it look anything like a Titan bite? Or do we have to modify it...?"

"M-Modify it?" An expression of horror and unjust fell onto his face. "N-no, I think we're good..." He shuddered a little, wondering why she said that to begin with. "Come on, let's go find the others."

"Even though, last I checked, Titans mouths' aren't vertical..." He thought to himself, as he readjusted his 3DMG.

"If it doesn't look like a titan bite, Mikasa will know! They already know my Titan was obviously a shifter! If I suddenly go back with this wound... and Mikasa sees..." she trailed off. She didn't like the idea of having to harm herself further to hide what happened, but if Mikasa figured it out this early, many bad things would happen. Brian walked up beside her as the remains of his titan faded to dust behind them.

"Let's just go, alright? If she _does _see, we'll work it out as it goes along." He felt suddenly inclined to see Jean again as he swung up into the nearest tree, and turned back around, expectantly watching Cat to follow. The girl slowly sat up and fixed her blood-soaked uniform. She flew after him, up into the trees, though more slowly.

He watched her slide into the branch alongside him, and decided that it wouldn't hurt to go a bit slower this time around.

Around 20 minutes later, they made their way back to the site, and Brian instantly split away from Cat, knowing full well that he owed Armin an explanation as to why his 'super-huge shit' took over an hour. Said blonde was talking with a few other members of the Survey Corps. He was discussing with them what to do with some of the bodies...

Cat let him leave and instead went to go and sit on a wagon currently empty of bodies. She kept her back straight so as not to anger her wound any further.

The curly-headed boy walked up to Armin, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Armin..."

He turned around and looked at him, and soon as he saw Brian his eyes widened and he lunged at him, looking like he wanted to give him some kind of hug, but stopped himself in time and just stared at him. "Where on Earth have you been!? We all thought you got eaten or something!"

"Ahh-!" He stumbled backwards a bit, but maintained his balance, and scratched behind his head sheepishly. "Actually, if you want to ask someone about getting eaten, your best guess at this point would be Cat." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at her, grinning a little. "As I was coming back, I actually ran into her. Well, not literally, but you get the idea. Anyways, I basically saved her from getting eaten! The Titan was huge! It must've been a Category 3 or something!" He spoke with a louder tone of voice and more emotion, trying to see if Jean would catch onto the conversation. The other male did glance over, but that's all, instead he went back to helping Connie pile dead corpses on a wagon.

"Is she okay?" Armin glanced around quickly and saw the female sitting down on a wagon, obviously alive, so he sighed in relief. "That's good. We were actually waiting for you guys to come back. All we need now is Eren, Mikasa, and Levi. Then we can head back to the city."

"Eren..." Brian mumbled to himself, and his eyes glossed over as flashbacks of the fistfight raged through his memory like a hurricane. By now, the titan shifter should've recovered from Cat's scream. It wasn't that detrimental to his hearing, as the skin-covered asshole was able to move his body almost right after she had finished. He stared down at the ground, trying to recall what had happened to Mikasa and Levi. After around half a minute of silence, he blinked, and looked around. Dammit, he needed to stop doing that. "Huh? Oh, right, yeah."

"Are you okay?" Armin looked worried. "Do you want to ride with me back?"

"Huh? Er...N-no, I'm fine...I was just...Thinking..." The other's voice slowly trailed off, and he looked up at the trees that encompassed them, trying to find the location of the sun. They had better start heading back soon, Eren or no Eren.

"Well.. I guess you can rest now. We won't leave 'till the others return. Which should be soon. Or you could help out? Your choice..." Armin then turned and walked away. Brian looked back down, and weighed his options. Get some rest, so he can get a clear mind for tomorrow? Or, help out with dead bodies, which is kind of gross, but could give him a potential chance to hit on Jean...Hmm...

Suddenly, Levi came bursting form the trees behind him, Eren on his own horse, and Mikasa on hers. Several other Survey Corps members were with them. As they came out of the forest, Titans were hot on their tails. Brian's mind bubble snapped, and his eyes widened. "Holy Hell, what's going on!?" He spun around, and spotted Cat. "Cat!" He yelled, trying to get her attention, but it was interrupted by none other than Jean, who galloped up to him on his horse. "Titans?! What are those dumbasses thinking, bringing them out here?! EVERYONE! LET'S GO!" He then glanced down at Brian, and smiled. "Hop on." He held out his hand for the other to grab.

Meanwhile, Cat was already laying on her wagon as it started to move off. She looked at Brian as she rolled away.

He blinked, and looked up at Jean on his horse, and felt his face grow bright red. That moment seemed to freeze in time: Jean's dark blonde hair shining in the sunlight, his light brown eyes glinting brilliantly, his outstretched hand pulling him in like a magnet.

"Er...Yeah." Brian regained his senses, and jumped on without further thought. Glancing at the ground, he wrapped his arms around Jean's stomach, making sure he wasn't going to fall off. Jean spun his horse around and galloped after the retreating wagons and Survey Corps members. Levi and his squad followed suit, but the Titans didn't slow down, if anything they were getting closer.

He turned around, glancing at the approaching Titans, and then looked back to Jean. "Do we have any firearms?! We could try to shoot some of them down. I know it wouldn't do much, but it would slow them down...!"

Jean shook his head, looking back himself. "No, we don't... we're moving too slow..." Suddenly, a body from one of the carts nearby went flying off, it bounced away and people avoided it.

"Eh?" Brian glanced over at the body, and shivered a little. "Well, look's like _they're_ not getting a funeral." More flew past them. People were tossing dead bodies off the wagons in order to get away form the titans faster. He glanced at the flying bodies. "I fucking swear, if they throw off Cat..." He mumbled to himself, before focusing on the forest ahead of them, which was getting clearer and clearer by the minute. Soon, everyone was clear of the trees, most of the wagons were empty now, and the Titans were loosing distance to them. Levi and Mikasa galloped by, Mikasa looked over at Brian as she passed. As Mikasa ran by, he slowly glanced at her, and unexpectedly met her stare. He blinked, and accidentally tightened the grip on Jean's gut. "?!"

Jean glanced back at him. "Are you trying to suffocate me? Relax dude, the Titans are falling behind."

"What in the world is she-" he thought to himself, and he looked up at Jean, realizing how hard he was pulling on the other. "Oh, uh, sorry about that..." He loosened his grip a bit, and looked over at Mikasa, who was now a couple yards ahead of them. Weird. Jean looked back ahead and kept going as the Titans soon stopped chasing them and everyone reached the first Wall. By the time they had reached the city, Brian's body was exhausted from fighting, running, and fighting, and he had fallen asleep on Jean's back, breathing slowly. They had arrived just in time, too, as the sun has almost finished setting, blowing vibrant shades of orange, red, and violet into the growing night.


	5. Chapter 3: Turtle-Face

Brian blinked, and felt his heart drop through the floor. "Rumors? Like what?" He glanced at Mikasa from across the room, before returning to the other two teens. HQ was busy tonight; people were up and about their usual business, and news about the Titan fight spread like wildfire. And, of course, Cat was nowhere to be found.

"You know that female Titan?" Reiner scoffed, both him and Berthold sitting across the table from Brian. "Then again, who doesn't? She plowed through our ranks like water. Anyway, she went after Eren, and so Eren turned into a titan to fight back. But then the female titan that attacked US attacked them! You know, the one with long hair? And Eren protected it. Then ANOTHER Titan came and joined the mess. So four Titans were all there. Anyways, the rumors going around is that there are three traitors here in the city...who can turn into titans." Reiner gave Brian a 'Get what I'm saying here?' look.

The boy swallowed. "...Traitors?" He stared back at Reiner, and his eyelids lowered a little, knowing exactly what he was thinking. "Who said this?" The taller man jerked his head to the corner of the room where Mikasa and the others were still talking. He lowered his voice to a very subtle whisper. "You guys aren't very good at plans, are you..?" Brian sighed, and looked away, smiling a little to himself.

"We normally just do it as we go along..." He mumbled back.

"...And look where it's gotten you." He cut in. "Security is getting bumped, they're making plans to flush someone out, and the Survey Corps is trying their hardest to find that Screaming Titan." Reiner shook his head. "I know this has to suck, seeing how you've got that Mirror business over your head...one slip up and they'll come get you... but you need to be more discreet about this stuff."

"It's a good thing you let us in on everything, or you'd probably be in an even tougher situation..." Bertholdt mumbled loud enough for them to hear. Brian looked up at the two, and chuckled a little. "Well, it would be a lot easier if they didn't just say, 'Okay we need you to kill this person, this person, and this person'. We're only teenagers, they shouldn't expect us to be able to do all of this by ourselves." He stared out the nearby window at the starlit sky, resting his chin in his palms.

"You're powerful teenagers who can turn into giant, man-eating Titans that regenerate and are hard to kill." Reiner countered, leaning back in his chair. "They will have no sympathy for you."

His eyes shifted to him again. "You're saying this as though you've never been in this position before. Turtle-face." He smirked at him. Reiner blushed at the nick-name. "Well... we are in our own situation..."

His comrade nodded. "Yeah..." The wooden doors to the cafeteria swung open again, and Brian's eyes instantly locked onto the newcomer from across the room, and his voice trailed off. Reiner and Bertholdt looked at each other, then to whomever Brian was looking at.

Jean Kirstein looked around, a blank expression on his face. Flicking through the room with the eyes of a hawk, he walked over to Eren, Armin, Levi, and Mikasa, who had been talking there the whole night, and joined their conversation.

Meanwhile, Brian laid his head back down, and continued to stare like an idiot. Reiner blinked a few times, waving a huge hand in front of Brian's face. "Oh my God... I never thought you'd swing that way."

"What..?" He raised his head up, and looked back at Reiner. "Swing what?"

"You have a crush on Jean, don't you." Reiner whispered with a big grin. Brian's cheeks glowed a faint red in the lamplight.

"Possibly..." He avoided eye contact.

"You do! Go talk to him. Have fun. Maybe get a drink?" Reiner kept shoving playfully.

"W-what? You mean socialize?! Dude, that's my kryptonite." Reiner looked confused at the unknown word. "Uh...Well do it anyway!" the larger blonde man suddenly picked Brian up and literally threw him at the group.

"Gah! Reiner!" He yelled as he was thrusted over at Jean, Eren, Armin, etc. The group looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and surprise.

"Dropping in?" Armin asked, holding in a laugh. As some sort of weird response to that, Brian stumbled, and proceeded to fall over.

"That's a yes." Jean said, offering him a hand. A couple people laughed at a nearby table.

"Yeah, to put it lightly..." Brian mumbled, grabbed Jean's hand, and pulled himself off the floor.

"Did you need something?" Levi said bluntly. Mikasa just stared at Brian. Rubbing his nose, which had begun to bleed a little, the embarrassed boy looked around to everyone else, wondering who exactly noticed that fall, which seemed to be everyone. "Huh...?" He looked to Levi. "Er...not exactly..." He glared over his shoulder at Reiner quickly.

"Are you feeling okay?" Armin asked. "After everything that's happened?"

"Well, I think my nose is bleeding. Other than that, I think I'm good." He smiled at him softly. "What about you guys? You've all been talking here since I walked in." Mikasa looked to Levi quickly, then spoke up. "We've been making a plan to capture one of the traitors. We think its Annie."

"Huh? Which one? There's three, right?" His smile faded as he wiped the remains of the blood off of his nose. "It's obviously one of the female Titans." Levi said emotionlessly. "Hanj is hoping she's the talking one, but we all think she's the other."

"Oh, I see..." Brian nodded slowly, placing his hands in his pockets.

"You should help us." Mikasa said suddenly.

Brian chuckled sheepishly. "Er...I don't see why not." He said slowly. _Shit_. He thought to himself.

"More help would be great." Levi said.

"You can travel with us and Eren." Armin added. "We're going to talk to Annie directly."

He smirked. "Sweet, count me in."

"Great!" Armin cheered. "You'll have to get up early tomorrow to start the plan."

"Plan? What plan?"


	6. Chapter 4: Annie Leonhart

Armin stood in the hallway talking with Annie, trying to convince her to come with them. Brian stayed behind with Mikasa and Eren. He leaned against the wall, rubbing his eyes. "What time is it again? Like, 5 in the morning or something?"

"Probably 6, by now." Mikasa said through her scarf. She glanced to Brian then back towards Armin.

"Whatever, the sun hasn't even come up yet." He folded his arms, annoyed.

"The sooner we do this, the better." she hissed. "It's only a matter of time before the Military Police figure out it's Jean and not Eren."

"What?!" He jumped off the wall, and glared at Mikasa. "Jean has nothing to do with this!" He hissed back. Mikasa glared at him.

"Everyone is doing their part. We have others hidden in the area to capture Annie if she attempts to turn into a Titan. We had no one else to be his stand-in." Just then, something in Brian's head snapped. Maybe it was because he was tired, but he just NOW realized that he could be holding everyone's life in his hands. "Oh." Were the only words that came out of his mouth before he went back to leaning against the wall. Armin soon came back with Annie. "We're ready to go." Brian nodded, folding his arms, and he kicked off the wall. The others followed. Annie glanced at him silently before following close behind Armin. The sounds of boots against tile was heard as they walked down HQ. Everyone had their hoods up. Annie would occasionally glance back at them, her eyes flashing to Brian every now and again. Brian, however, kept his eyes locked ahead of him, ignoring whenever Annie would glance at him. This was going to be fun.

"You look familiar." she said lightly.

He snorted. "Yeah, you too." Being a cocky asshole again. Great time for a great ego.

"I mean, you look like someone I met...though they're not exactly...a 'someone'..." she hesitated, and narrowed her eyes at him dangerously.

His expression blanked. "Wait, what?"

She went to talk again but Armin interrupted. "We're here." he pointed to a stair case leading down. Everyone looked down at the staircase. Brian looked back up at Annie, and then to Eren. "It's underground?"

The brown-haired boy nodded then started walking downstairs. Armin and Mikasa followed suit. But Annie stayed where she was. Brian blinked, and stared up at her. "Ladies first." He said in a monotonous voice. She looked at him then shook her head. "No...I don't like dark places..."

The other boy stared blankly at her. "There's three more of us. Don't worry about it." He stood there, waiting for her to go down. But Annie shook her head. "I still don't want to go..." everyone in the tunnel had stopped moving and was now staring at Annie.

"What are you scared of? Nothing's going to eat you down there!" He argued, waiting for her to go down. Annie shook her head. "I still don't want to go..." Everyone in the tunnel had stopped moving and were now staring at Annie.

"What? Annie, you don't have a choice. Now, come on."

Annie still stood there, not saying anything. Armin looked scared, like he didn't want to believe what was happening. "Annie...please...don't do this..." Brian continued to stare at her, waiting for her to move. "We don't have all day." Annie shook her head and backed up. She brought one of her hands up to her face and brushed some hair away. Something shiny glinted on one of her fingers. "I'm not going...it's too late for anything now." She mumbled. The other stared up at her hands, and took a step back. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"I'm not doing anything. Just brushing hair out of my face." Annie stared at him. "Why...do you think I'm going to do something..?"

Eyebrows furrowed, the boy kept his gaze stuck on her right hand, and nodded a little. "Yeah. I do." He tried his best to keep his voice from shaking. Annie smiled. "Ah...you know, I do remember you now..." She flicked the ring on her finger and it glinted again. He squinted, and tried to get a good look at her hands. "What...?" Annie looked to Eren and the others down in the tunnel. "If I say that now, though, you won't be too happy." Suddenly she lunged at him and pinned him against a wall, and leaned in close, so that she was whispering in his ear. "I gotta run. Brian. Don't interfere again, okay?" she brought her hand up to Brian's face, showing the ring. A blunt spike was sticking out of the end.

"Nngh!" He grabbed her arms, trying to force them away from his neck. "W-what the Hell is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?!" He yelled at her, heart pounding in his ears.

"Because I had to." She said simply.

She flicked her thumb on the spike, breaking skin. Suddenly, hot air blew from her body and her titan began to grow around her, encircling her body.

"S-shit!" Brian stumbled out of her grasp, and ran out of the way, throwing himself down the stairs. Annie's Titan grew larger until she reached her full height, causing her to look down at everyone. The surrounding Scouting Legion members leapt at her, their 3DMG ready. Brian, however, tumbled down to the bottom of the stairs, and looked up at everyone else. "Wait! She knows how to fight!" He threw up one of his hands, trying to warn everyone else. Which, in this case, was basically useless.

"Retreat into the tunnel!" Armin yelled. Mikasa grabbed both Brian and Eren and rushed into the tunnel as Annie's massive arm came down to try and grab either of them."Gah!" Brian grunted, sprinting at Mikasa's pace, his body still trying to recover from the prior traumatizing event. He glanced behind him, and ducked as a brick flew over his head, making him run faster. "Shitshitshitshitshit-"

"Brian, shut up!" Eren interjected, grabbing him by the shirt collar. "Freaking out isn't going to help us!" The ceiling up ahead crumbled as Annie's foot fell through it. The other boy swallowed, and nodded. "Y-yeah, you're right." He glanced at the crumbling ceiling, and felt beads of sweat begin to drip down his forehead. "Can we keep running now?"

"We can't leave with Eren, Annie will grab him!" Armin said, sweat building up on his forehead. "Mikasa! You and I will leave both sides. We'll distract Annie while Eren turns into a titan!"

"Wait, what about the others?!" Brian yelled to the blonde.

"Others? If you mean the other Scouting Legion members, they're with Hanji and Erwin, setting up a trap."

"Oh, great. Should I follow you?!" The panic rose in his voice.

"That might be for the best. Stay close, alright?" Armin then ran down the tunnel to one of the exits.

The curly-headed boy nodded, and followed quickly, glancing behind him one more time. Eren was seen sitting there trying to turn into a Titan, his hand already bloody, but with no reaction. Suddenly the roof above him caved in. Eyes wide, Brian shook his head, preventing himself from going back to his friend, and continued to navigate through the tunnels behind Armin. The other male ran from the exit and immediately took off on his 3DMG onto a building. Following close behind, Brian squinted at the rising sun, and flew up to the building after him. Annie looked up at them, turning her body all the way around so that she was facing him; and it seemed as though she smiled at Brian. If she could talk she might have, but instead she turned and ran. Taking a step back, all of Brian's hair stood on end as he glanced at Armin to his left. "You saw that too, right?"

"Saw what? We have to go after her!" Armin said quickly, then was off again. Brian blinked, and squeezed his eyes shut for a second before following in hot persuit.


End file.
